We rely on the Arduino platform for one course in the progam: MRE 5183 - Mechatronic Systems I. This is a first mechatronic design course and also serves as a technical elective for undergraduates. The Arduino platform is cheap (purchased by students) and has plenty of examples to assist students in a first course.

In MRE 6183 - Mechatronic Systems II we use National Instruments cRIO and STM32 ARM Cortex-M3 microcontrollers. We have also looked into using the National Instrument myRIO (purchased b students). We use both the cRIO and ARM microcontrollers to implement feedback controllers on provided hardware experiments and student-designed projects. The focus is on practicalities of implementation.

dSPACE has also been considered but we haven't made the investment yet.